Chapter 8

The Best Reward

「Kazura-sama, is this board's thickness okay?」「Let’s me see, I think it is all right . Also, why do you call me with ‘-sama’?」

One day after ordering the watermill . Amidst the sound of saw cutting down the tree and the villager's chatters, Kazura directs the villager into building a aqueduct from wooden boards . It will channel the water from the waterwheel-powered water pump . Near the forest entrance in the outskirt of the village, Kazura and the villagers work with the trees that they had felled . 「I understand . Then, the next 60 board will have the same thickness as this one . 」 The young men of the village are confirming the board thickness with Kazura, and then start to be immersed in their work with serious expression . Even if Kazura complain 「Will the next one will be perfect?」, he still gives direction to villagers who inquire him . 「Kazura-sama, is this support pillar's thickness and length fine?」「Hmm, the thickness is fine but the length is a bit too long, please make it about this long . And also please stop adding ‘–sama’ . 」「I understand, so it is about this long . I will tell the others . 」 The villager drags away the support pillar which had been measured with a meter and marked with permanent marker . Then that same villager comes back once again while dragging the support behind him . 「Eh? What is this? Bullying? This is bullying right?」「Kazura-san, I want to tell you that a lunch had been prepared . . . Is something wrong?」 Kazura was cursing while reviewing the waterwheel blueprint he drew in A4-sized notebook . Valetta and several village girls then arrived and brought the newly cooked porridge in several pots using the pullcart . 「Everyone in the village address me with –sama honorofics . Please do something about it . 」「Aa . . . . . . Everybody wants to say their grat.i.tude to Kazura-san which they hold in high esteem . Please humbly receive it . 」「Eeh . . . . 」 Not accustomed being addressed with honorifics, Kazura frankly show his displeased expression . So, Valetta said, 「Well, isn’t it fine? Leaving that aside, it’s time to eat so can you take a break from your work?」 Well, being addressed with honorifics is not something bad, so about being addressed with –sama honorifics, he decides to not let it bother him . 「I see, It’s the time right? I understand, let’s take a break . . . . . . Everyone, the food has arrived so please gather to eat your share! We will continue after we finish the meal . 」 Kazura called the villagers, from here and there they reply with acknowledgement . This is a good time to stop, also several villagers is watching the work place, so there might not be any problems . 「Please wash your hand using this . I will bring the porridge now . 」 Valetta put a bucket in front of Kazura, from the pot in Pullcart the porridge is scooped into a bowl . The other girls are also carrying buckets around and distributing bowl of porridge and the cup fwater from the wooden tray to the gathered villager . 「Yes, sorry for the wait . Now then, please distribute it to the others . 」「A, Valetta! Leave this place to us . You just go and eat together with Kazura-sama!」 While distributing food to the queuing villagers, a girl said so to the Valetta who was standing behind the pullcart . 「E, but . . . . 」 Valetta steal glance to Kazura’s direction and become perplexed . The food for Kazura had been placed in a different tray, ready to be delivered . 「It’s okay, it’s okay, Leave it to me . 」

While saying that, the girl hand over tray with the food to Valetta, before going back to her work . 「Errr . . . May I sit beside you?」 With a small smile, Valetta asks while putting down the tray she carried . 「Sure, be my guest . 」 So she sits beside Kazura . For Kazura, except for Valetta and the village chief, he seldom engages in conversation with the villagers . So when Valetta come his mind felt more at ease . Kazura isn’t shy or afraid of strangers, however because the villagers always show respect to Kazura, he somehow becomes reserved about it . Now that they are building the aqueduct together, Kazura can actively give instructions and partic.i.p.ates in conversations . Thanks to all of this, his mental condition somewhat improved . 「What about the people who work in the fields? Are the tools I gave useful?」「Yes, it's easy to use and very popular . I am also a little surprised when I used it, I never imagined that I will be able to dig up the earth that easily . 」 A large amount of farming tools had been bought at the home-center and this morning it had been delivered to Valetta house using the pullcart . Because Kazura is busy with manufacturing parts of the aqueducts, the distribution of farming tools is left to village chief discretion . By the way, because the village chief said that he will distribute it as immediately, the villager had used the new farming tools in working the fields . As a side note, as he was very tired last night, after he ate his dinner at a restaurant, he stayed at a business hotel and slept deeply . 「Uh-huh . . . I glad that it’s useful . 」 While saying this, Kazura ceremoniously pulled off the lid of a can that had 「Broiled Mackerel」 written on the side . A pleasant appet.i.te stimulating scent is emanating from the inside of the can . Canned food is a food that is universally accepted by people, but the reason Kazura pick canned food is that it's his favorite dish . The content can be heated with hot water, if it was perfectly performed, the can could be heated properly . 「Wow . . . What a nice scent . It looks delicious . 」 Valetta also opens a can . She is smiling broadly because of the scent .

「Its scent is nice」 or 「This is delicious!」, these words can be heard from their surroundings . 「This is a kind of fish that is called Mackerel (Pacific Saury) that was cooked by broiling it in sauce . It’s quite tasty, you know . 」「This is fish? Although sometime we eat fish that we catch from the river, we never cook it like this . 」 The river where they caught the fishes, is it the same river that they went to yesterday?Even if this is a different world, did they also fis.h.i.+ng with fishhook, net, and the likes? He become a little curious and decide to hear about it . 「Ano, when you go fis.h.i.+ng at the river, do you use fis.h.i.+ng rod?」 「Though it also can be used for fis.h.i.+ng, it is time consuming . So, when the river had stopped flooding, it will leave puddle of water inland . The fishes that was trapped in the leftover puddles will be caught and cooked by roasting it in fire . 」 「Aa . . . I see . That way is more efficient」 While the two is peacefully eating while conversing with each other, every villager comes to the pullcart to ask for seconds of porridge . While they do that they always send their grat.i.tude to Kazura that sits beside the pullcart . 「Now, shall we call an end for today? Let’s continue tomorrow . 」 The sun in the sky is already descending behind the faraway mountain peaks . The sky is dyed with sunset's color . The daytime will be over in about 2 hours, so today share of work is done . Listening to Kazura call to end the work, the villagers acknowledged it one by one . The tools that the villagers used to work are saw, bronze cutter and wooden hammer, that belongs to the village, so it will be collected by Kazura and Valetta to be stored . 「Leave the collecting and storing the tools to us? Kazura-sama and Valetta-san should be the ones who go home first . 」 So the villagers said . Although they were a bit reluctant, the pair of Kazura and Valetta had been work without rest, so they ask them to return early as a sign of grat.i.tude . 「Let's accept their humble request . 」「Ah, yes . Then shall we return?」

Kazura and Valetta give their thanks to the villagers who decide to tidy up the tools, before walking to Valetta’s home . When they start walking, Kazura glimpses a scene of villagers clasping their hand as if praying to him . He decides that it is just his imagination . On the way back, Kazura hear Valetta’s story about fish dishes in the village and the crops that the village produced until now . Kazura sees Valetta’s profile who happily talks about the village . Her previously skin and bones body had become fles.h.i.+er . Her nutrition condition had greatly improved in the last 4 days . Maybe, the effect of being released from her previous depressed mental condition is large . 「(However, is it normal in here for someone to recover quickly like this?)」 He doesn’t really know in detail about how fast people recover in a state of starvation . Maybe because they are in a state of starvation for a long time, the cells in the body completely absorb the entire nutrient that it receives . Though he really don’t understand how dozens of half-dead people can be restored by Lipo-D . He doesn’t possibly know, so he just let it slide . He ponders about these things while looking at Valetta face . 「A, Ano Kazura-san, is something wrong?」 Valetta halts her steps . With a blush appearing on her cheek, she looks at Kazura with upturned eyes . (TL: Just imagine “kininarimasu”-scene from Hyouka . . . )It seems that he looked at Valetta for too long . 「N, No . . . . . . I just think that lately Valetta-san become more healthy . 」 Valetta had a puzzled look for a moment after hearing Kazura words . Then she replied, 「Yes . It’s all thanks to Kazura-san . 」 The blus.h.i.+ng girl in front of him is showing him her smile that comes from happiness in her heart . To that beautiful smile, this time it‘s the turn for Kazura to blush . To be able to see her smile like this, somehow a sense of happiness is spreading in his heart .